JO BONNIER AND THE
SOUTHWOOD CONNECTION

Kevin Rawson, owner of Southwood and Alfa Romeo enthusiast brought this stunning Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce into the studio for a photo shoot and we caught a few key details on camera for him at the same time.

“All I can ever remember from my very earliest years is being in my bedroom at night and hearing a car going past and I could actually tell what sort of car it was from the sound of the engine and I suppose it’s been with me ever since then. I specialise in Alfa Romeos, particularly from the 1950s and 60s. The car we have here today is an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce; a very special version it’s the Alleggerita. She’s a lightweight car so the doors, bonnet and boot are all aluminium and the windows are plexi glass. It’s lightweight in just about every part - the seats and interior too. They made 24,000 Giuliettas in total, but only about 600 of the Alleggerita and there is only something like less than 40 that remain so they’re a very rare automobile.

It was originally owned by a gentleman racer called Jo Bonnier who was a Swedish Formula 1 driver and sports car racer in the mid 50s. He started off in bike racing, progressed to rallying and in 1956 became a Formula 1 driver. He entered the legendary race, the Mille Miglia, in a Giulietta Sprint Veloce and achieved a position of 15th overall against much more powerful cars. Alfa Romeo were so delighted with his result that he was presented with this car by them and he went on to campaign it for a number of years. It’s just a very, very, special version of the Alleggerita.

If money were no object it’s definitely a keepers car, its got great history, it’s correct in every detail. Alfa Romeos of this era are hard to find. We obviously look for perfect cars but we also look for historically important cars that might need restoration or work doing to them.

Cars are mainly sourced from throughout Europe, we will go Worldwide but we will only ever buy cars we can inspect ourselves personally. Most cars we have we own because we can control the quality of the car, invest in whatever vehicle we want. We do take on commission sales if something is extra special.

About 5 or 6 years ago I got to the stage where I could do something that I purely enjoyed and that is what Southwood is, its not all about making a profit on everything, it’s a passion and it’s an enjoyable business to supply cars to people that have that same interest as you”